Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Who Are Prysm's Customers?
Prysm’s customers come from different markets, including retail, sports, corporate and broadcast.
Where is Prysm Headquartered?
San Jose, California
.
When Was Prysm Founded?
The Company was founded in 2005 by a team of technology and business leaders dedicated to high-performance digital display technology.
What Are Prysm’s Products?
Prysm is the exclusive manufacturer and patented designer of Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology. Currently, Prysm offers a suite of 5 ready-to‐install solutions, including the Digital Ribbon, Digital Mannequin, Digital Kiosk, Digital Widescreen, and Digital Spectacular. The Digital Freeform, our sixth solution, can be customized in any shape and size to conform to any vision for digital display technology. This includes curved solutions, embedded into walls and floors, and custom-enclosed displays–all featuring our signature seamless look.
What is Laser Phosphor Display (LPD)?
LPD is a new category of large format digital display technology, with the lowest power consumption and environmental impact along with freeform flexibility, long-lasting performance and brilliant picture quality.
How Does LPD Work?
LPD uses lasers to excite phosphors, which in turn create brilliant high‐resolution pictures. As the lasers scan across the surface, the phosphors emit red, green and blue colors with very rapid response. The lasers modulate by turning on and off for each pixel to create an image. This method results in substantial power efficiency and extended lifetime. This contrasts with conventional displays that must filter or modulate a backlight that remains on constantly.
Does LPD Consume Much Power?
No, LPD consumes up to 75% less power than other display technologies. Prysm's LPD tiles are made with low‐impact manufacturing processes and non‐toxic materials. This translates into the lowest cost of ownership and lowest carbon footprint of any large format display. For example, the Digital Spectacular runs on less power than the average household hairdryer. The Digital Kiosk runs on less than the average kitchen coffee grinder. And the Digital Mannequin runs on less than the common coffee pot.
What is the Lifetime of Prysm Products?
Please contact our sales team to discuss the average lifetime of your specific application.
Are There Any Special Cooling Requirements for Prysm Solutions?
One of the major design benefits of our solutions’ low power consumption is the very low requirements for cooling–only 1.7BTU/min per tile, 75% less than other displays on average. Each LPD tile dissipates a very small amount of heat enabling displays to be mounted nearly flush against a wall. In most instances, ambient natural air convection along with our quiet, temperature-controlled fans, does most of the cooling. For very large installations, custom cooling arrangements may be designed.
What Kind of Processor Do I Need?
Prysm solutions are designed to scale for large display systems. As a result, a single 1U high Prysm IP1 Image Processor runs up to 30 LPD tiles with 1920 x 1200 resolution. The number of Image Processors required scales efficiently with increasing size and resolution. A 300in. diagonal, 4k x 2k resolution display of 8 million pixels only requires four Image Processors daisy-chained together.
How Far Can the Video Source Be From the Display?
The Prysm IP1 Image Processor can be located up to 40ft. (12.2m) away from the display. Furthermore, Prysm provides a fiber optic source extender system that accepts multiple source inputs, enabling remote location of the video source up to 3275 ft. (1000m) away from the Image Processor.
What are the Service and Maintenance Requirements?
While Prysm solutions are very reliable, they are designed for straightforward servicing when replacement or repair is required. Any authorized service center can replace or repair the components inside the display as necessary.
How Heavy are the Solutions?
Each LPD tile weighs 58 lbs. The tile enclosure is engineered for maximum stiffness in order to offer the industry’s best seam gap. Also the panel uses thermally stable glass, which also weighs more than other materials. However, since they are so efficient, less cooling infrastructure is required. Thus, the net structural weight is comparable to other displays.
How do the Solutions Perform on Broadcast Cameras?
LPD technology has been tested with professional studio cameras and performs better than competing technologies when properly synchronized to the camera frame rate (genlock). In fact, LPD technology has even been installed in professional broadcast studios. The image appears more uniform than other displays, such as projection.
What are the Power Supply Requirements?
Each LPD tile is equipped with its own AC-to-DC power supply that is affixed to the rear of each unit. Each supply may be daisy-chained up to 5 units from the initial AC power drop. The power supply is very reliable with a very high MTBF rating and is thus rated for lifetime equal to (or exceeding) the 60,000-hour rating of the display system.
Are Lasers Safe?
All LPD display products are Class I lasers and have been rigorously tested for safety in all normal use cases. Like other products that use lasers (such as DVD players) the enclosure contains interlocks to prevent operation of the system if it is compromised.
What is the Availability of the Solutions?
Once you’ve designed your Digital Engagement plan with a Prysm sales representative or Consulting Team, the ordering process takes about 8–10 weeks in the US and EMEA.
What is the Prysm Consulting Team?
The consulting team was established to help architects, planners and builders discuss ideas, best practices and projects. Made up of strategy, building and content professionals with more than 50 years of experience in the digital display marketing industry, our team is ready to answer questions about large format display practices and hear from you about how we can help you understand and specify Prysm technology.
Does LPD Burn in?
LPD tiles don't suffer from burn in issues that are common to legacy display technologies. Our patented phosphors are highly-stable, possess low excitation energy, and remain at or near ambient temperature during display operation. This ensures both a long display life and no burn in.
Is LPD hard to service?
While failures are rare, if service is needed, our modular building block design and our trained and certified Field Application Engineers make any service call easy. Prysm offers multiple framing solutions to meet the servicing requirements of our customers across markets, including those in mission-critical environments. Prysm certified Field Application Engineers are deployed around the world and provide our customers with a world class experience.
Is there enough resolution?
Each Prysm surface-emissive TD1 tile possesses a native resolution of 320x240 pixels. Each tile produces bright, uniform images that look great at any angle from 3 feet to 300 feet away.
Do the tiles break under the heat of operation?
Prysm has designed the display panel to accommodate expansion over the full specified operating and non-operating temperature range set forth in the product specification. Performance to (and beyond) this specification has been verified at the individual tile level and in the tiled wall configuration. The methods and materials Prysm has used to accommodate uniform expansion and contraction over a range of temperatures are proprietary and confidential.
Is there a rental version?
Prysm offers a rental version of the solution that includes a rapid-assembly frame which is capable of being supported from a floor, wall, or overhead. Get in touch with us to see how it could be useful in your rental and/or staging environment.
What is the Prysm Content Connection™?
The Content Connection™ is a comprehensive directory of screened content services providers with proven expertise in areas such as creative design, video production, interactive experiences, application development, stock content, and more. By streamlining the process of identifying the most capable content services providers, Prysm enables its customers to design stunning, immersive user experiences that maximize the impact of large-scale LPD videowalls.
